


record player (circa 2014)

by free_cookiesx



Series: tma au! [4]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, It's Free Real Estate, shelby got stuck in a staircase once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27786979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/free_cookiesx/pseuds/free_cookiesx
Summary: Statement 0161610:Statement of Shelby Grace, regarding her time spent trapped in a stairwell with no exit.Sometimes I think all I'm ever doing is // Trying to convince myself I'm alive
Relationships: no shipping!! - Relationship, shippers dni - Relationship
Series: tma au! [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918069
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	record player (circa 2014)

**Author's Note:**

> spiral shelby go brr

**[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**Statement of... oh.

 **[PAUSE, A DEEP INHALE AND EXHALE]** **  
**Statement of Shelby Grace, regarding her time spent trapped in a stairwell with no exit. The original statement was given on August 16th, 2016. Audio recording by the Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, based in London.

 **[STATEMENT]** **  
**I'm sorry for being so persistent on coming to you guys. I know there's something based in the US, but I'm not sure how well I trust them. You guys have been given glowing regards all around and I didn't find anything

I don't know why anyone would schedule me for a signing. No one was there to see me, I wasn't too popular yet. I had told a couple of my friends to act as fans, but even though they did it was ultimately pointless. The guy who had scheduled the signing was gone and- It was just a big mess. They had to go do something and we decided that we could meet up in 40 minutes and then leave. 

40 minutes came and went and- well. No friends. They had gone to Cheesecake Factory and had left me at my booth. Which was fine, it was fine, but it kind of hurt a little. I'm not sure about how they forgot me, but I was at the booth alone and they weren't coming to get me. 

I went to leave, but there was such a large line for the escalator and I absolutely _hated_ that. I decided to take the stairs (bad idea in hindsight, I know) and I found a stairwell that said "Stairwell: EXIT." 

There was no exit from the staircase. 

I went back up to see if I was able to get out another way, and I still couldn't find an exit. I combed the stairs and I still couldn't find an exit. There were _sixteen_ flights of stairs and I couldn't find a _single_ exit. All of them were locked and I couldn't get out. I tried not to panic, but I couldn't- I couldn't get _out._

So I was stuck. 

I was weighing being embarrassed by knocking on the door to get help, but to be honest I thought the sting of death might be better. I wasn't sure how to feel about this, I was embarrassed by even being there in the first place, but I didn't want to give up yet. When I was contemplating it was starting to get concerningly hot. 

I didn't think much of it, it was a hot season and I was in a place that had almost no ventilation. But as it went on the temperature started to increase and increase, and suddenly I was seriously starting to get worried for my physical health. I don't know what prompted me to do it, but I didn't bang on the door and ask someone for help. I just sat down, and hoped that would give me a break. I genuinely thought I was about to pass out, and I didn't know what to do. 

I was about to cry, but I thought that if I just sat and waited long enough the doors would miraculously be unlocked. Obviously that didn't happen, and I was waiting with the driest of mouths for what felt like a good twenty minutes. I finally sat up and I was all tense. My body didn't want to cooperate with me but I powered through it and knocked on the door. 

No one answered. 

I was so scared, I just kept banging on the door, yelling for someone to come, and I couldn't help but feel that everyone had left the convention center. That I was there alone. 

But that- that couldn't be right. I was only in the stairwell for a few minutes, there was no way it would be after the center closed _already_. I couldn't have been hiding for _that long_. It was hot, and my mind was swimming, and I had no idea if I was right or wrong. There were so many possibilities in my mind and I couldn't let go of any of them. Surely- _surely_ there was still someone in the building. Surely some fort of cleaning staff was still there. Surely I wouldn't be alone. 

I didn't think to call anyone. How could I? PAX had terrible service, always has, and I needed to save battery. Or did I? I wasn't sure how long I had spent there, or how much battery I had, or anything about how well I was able to call someone. I wasn't sure how many people I could have called or how willing they would be to listen to me, either. I decided to look and see what the time was, at least, so I turned my phone on. 

Nothing. 

I held down the power button. Still nothing. 

My phone must have been overheating, or out of battery, or just malfunctioning, but I panicked. 

I couldn't feel anything, my body didn't seem real, and all the while I was doubting myself. I wandered up and down the stairs some more, and I lost track of how many there were. It didn't feel like sixteen, or twenty, or any number. It spiralled and twisted and at one point I could have sworn I was walking upside down. 

I was breathing steadily but it didn't feel like I was taking in any air, and I didn't think that I was able to see much. It felt like the world was crushing me and that I couldn't stand anymore. I was certain I hit my head on some stairs, but I woke up on the ground, kneeling. I couldn't move I couldn't think, and I swear I heard the static laughter of someone I didn't know behind me. There was a melody that I could only faintly hear, and I have a hunch that I wouldn't be able to place it even if I _could_ hear. 

It felt like I had been there forever and never all at once, and I wandered up and down the endless maze that I couldn't solve. I tried everything- banging on the doors again, shouting until my voice was hoarse, breaking down in the corner, but I couldn't get it. There was this horrible, screeching static, and I passed out. 

I don't remember what happened, I only know that I was so completely terrified I wasn't able to perceive reality. It was all blank, and it felt like my entire body was made of static, curling and twisting and _spiraling_ inside of me. Part of me thinks I blocked out the memories instead of passing out, but the human body can only withstand so much. 

I woke up to the sound of my phone chiming and a text from Max, one of my friends. He asked me where I was and what I was doing, and I directed him to where I was. I must have been back in the regular convention stairwell, I could hear people in the halls and I was able to direct Max to where I was. 

If he noticed anything wrong with me he was kind enough not to say anything, and I didn't have to pay for my cheesecake that night. I don't know if I could have made a solid choice anyways, I was so distraught. 

There haven't been any incidents since then. My hair's been curlier, though, and there was this awful spiral pattern on the piece of cheesecake I got. 

I hope I never get stuck there again. 

**[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**Statement ends.

Well, that was something. With what I know about Shelby now- Well. That truly was an experience of a statement to go through. That doesn't matter, though. 

There was a follow-up statement about it from her friend Parker on September 12th, 2017, where she went back into the stairwell, presumably to conquer her fears. This time she had him to help her out, but as he put in his statement, it quickly got locked after she went into the stairwell again. She disappeared into the corridor, and never came back. 

This would be concerning on its own, but he texted her 20 minutes later and her responses were written in incomprehensible zalgo text and he tried to keep his hopes up. He assumed she had made it out. Spoilers: she didn't, and she was trapped in there for a long time. 

Her next public sighting was almost six months later. She was in front of another stairwell door, gently coaxing someone else into joining her. Parker noted that the interior of the staircase looked different, and that it resembled stereotypical medieval architecture much more than a convention stairwell. They made eye contact and he described it as... hang on. 

**[SOUNDS OF PAPER]**

He described it as "looking into static." I didn't expect anything less from the Spiral, but it must feel disorienting if you weren't expecting it. Parker left, and he said that he felt Shelby's eyes on him the whole way. He said that he never wanted to see her again, and that was totally understandable in my opinion. I don't think that I would have been able to handle _my_ friend turning into an avatar of the Spiral either. Much less one under the Distortion. 

But I think that's all for this statement. Of course, I've had some rather... unsavory encounters with Shelby myself, but I'm sure that it was all in good fun. Or something like that. She seems relatively harmless, but I have to be wary regardless of how nice she seems. _Or_ how much crown polish she gives to Techno. 

In her statement it seems like she had an encounter with another spiral avatar, because laughter and a song are similar to a statement uh… I can't remember which one. I'll have to look at it. But he seemed to also be of the distortion variety, if not then one that dealt with similar feelings. I'll have to track down the statement he's in. Or I'll have He or She do it. 

This is Head Archivist Phil, signing off.

**[CLICK]**

**[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**Supplemental.

I've not been able to get ahold of Wilbur Soot. He's a Stranger avatar, but I've always been able to see him before. I don't know how to find him and just Looking doesn't work anymore. I don't know how to put it, but it feels like something's _hiding_ him. I can still feel him, I still know he's there, but I'm not sure about how he went about it. I'm assuming he has an Eye or a Lonely protecting him, but I can't be sure. I know he has more people on his side, though. 

When he visited me a month ago, someone brought him into and out of the room. I didn't hear them come in, but I saw them as they went out. There was a girl, she had dark hair and darker nails, I'm assuming she's of the Dark. The Dark wouldn't have the ability to hide him from me, though, and I can't look for her either.

I'm assuming that they're all at least somewhat close, judging by- 

**[LOUD BANGING, SOMEONE BURSTS INTO THE ROOM]**

**[TOMMY]** **  
**_(Panicked)_ Phil?

 **[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**Y- Yeah, Tommy?

 **[TOMMY]** **  
**You remember Tubbo, right?

 **[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**Yeah?

 **[TOMMY]** **  
**We were hanging out and he just like- he just fell down and I don't know-

 **[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**_(Stern)_ Tommy, bottom line. 

**[TOMMY]** **  
**There's something wrong with him- He's rambling about the Archives? And- and She told me that you were here and you're with the Eye and I just thought you would know something about that and...

 **[ARCHIVIST]** **  
**Shit. _Shit._

**[CLICK]**

**Author's Note:**

> please tell me if this breaks anyone's boundaries and i will take it down!! 
> 
> ty for reading!! if you liked this please go check out my other works!! they're very good and are mostly l'manberg based :D


End file.
